Faith based innocence?

Headline news on CNN (this is a freaking headline story?) is that Martina Hingis is retiring amid the accusation that she tested positive for cocaine at Wimbledon. She is quoted as saying, “I believe that I am absolutely 100 percent innocent”.

Back that up a second. You believe you are innocent? You don’t know? Did you forget whether or not you coked up during that particular time frame, or what? I mean, if you accuse me of something, I will either say I am innocent, or (if I can’t say it with a straight face) I’ll avoid answering the accusation at all. Belief is for things you don’t know. People believe in god, or that they’ll win the lottery some day, or that OJ did it. When it comes to yourself and some rather significant illegal act, you bloody well better be certain. Belief doesn’t cut it.

No, she’s not “doing a Lance Armstrong”. Lance never failed a test (per se). They did once dig up a several-year-old sample and tested it, and it was positive for a currently banned substance that was not banned at the time the sample was taken, but Lance has never proven to be anything but clean. That’s why he still holds all seven or so of his Tour titles.

Beside positive drug tests for EPO & corticosteroids–which Lance’s media sponsors falsely denied, Lance used cow blood from Norway (Actovegin) and insulin in the 2000 Tour–and raced with Benoit Joachim, steroid busted in June 2000. Benoit was sacked in October, then rehired in 2001 after his doping suspension was reduced to six months.

Lance’s 1999 teammate Frankie Andreu confessed to his 1999 Tour EPO injections in the New York Times last year. Pharmstrong’s 1999 & 2000 wins were illegally doped and may be easily voided by ASO at anytime.